NOTES for Luk 1:57-80
Zechariah utters a true hymn to the future Messiah. It expresses hopes that can be placed in God alone—that peace will finally come upon the earth, that God’s people will be delivered from their enemies, and that people will receive forgiveness for all the evil they have done before God... Yet this is not merely a passive expectation of the triumph of justice and peace. Everyone who becomes a participant in the Message contributes to its fulfilment: Zechariah helps fulfil the prophecy about the last prophet, Mary receives the power of the Spirit in order to give birth to the coming Messiah, and John will have to prepare the people for His arrival. What mission falls to us, who live two thousand years after the Nativity?